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Congratulations, Toni! That is so awesome that you got a first place and an EC!!

Jan challenged me to write something dark. I think I went too far! It was 1850 words before I started trimming. The story was just too complex to try and cram into 750 words, but it was an interesting experiment, and I've lost my fear of writing about something ugly.

I thought about wrapping the end up all nice, but it just didn't seem real.

I'm glad you didn't Rachel, too many people make the mistake of tying stories into a neat little Bow. I used to routinely cut a thousand dollars words or more from my stories. I've gotten better though.

!800 is about normal for me. I had one I could not get enough cut off and wound up having to place it in the general submitions instead. I think the hardest one to cut back on mine (besides that one) was 2300. At least I saved the original for later. "Beyond the Mirror" turned in to a rather long piece.

Toni, I noticed you received a lot of constructive critiques. Did it discourage you or make you think you didn't belong her or did you see it as a genuine desire to help you move from a fantastic writer to an outstanding one. Even if you didn't agree with the points made, did it help you because you needed to process it and decide what was best for you?

Please be honest. If it's easier you could PM if you don't want your answers for all to see.

Ya know, it's funny. Lynn sent me a similar message about how much red ink I got this week. You guys are so sweet.

It doesn't bother me. I think about every comment made. If I agree with the feedback I do my best to implement it in future writings. If I think someone was just grasping at straws then I'll just move on. For instannce, you telling me chitchat is one word will stay with for-e-ver. I sincrely appreciate anyone willing to read what I write, let alone leave feedback. I've been so overwhelemd the past few weeks by all the positive comments I've received. I didn't think my writing was all that great--just friends and family blowing smoke if you will.

I think if all I received was red ink comments on something, my ego would take a hit, but it's sprinkled it amongst very kind support so I'll take it.

Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

That's how I feel. Some people or most people only give fluff, even on horrible pieces (no Pup I'm not talking about you) people will say they love it. Now if I tell you I love something, people tend to believe it. No matter what, there are always positive things to say about each piece and I always start and end with compliments.

Yeah, I'd be nervous if all I got was happy compliments. I'm still new to offering feedback and am struggling a bit. I was trying to say something nice about every piece I read, but sometimes an article just doesn't work for me. Now if I really like something I comment with the specific reason(s) why. If I didn't "get it" I just don't comment. If i have some red ink comments, I normally limit those to possible typos and/or punctuation errors. Since I haven't been writing "competitively" for long I don't feel I have the proper ability to critique sentence structure, tone, etc.

Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

Everyone says that and my answer is you may have been writing for only a bit, but you likely have been reading since you were five. After all that's who we need to please the reader, not other writers. I learned the most when I challenged myself to read and comment on every entry. I can't do it all the time, but it makes a difference when I can. I always start with a positive then a constructive (if I see it and feel God leading me to leave it) Then end on a positive. I'll go through the criteria the judges use: beginning, ending, crafting, on topic, clear message or point, transitions and I'm forgetting one.

Shann wrote:Everyone says that and my answer is you may have been writing for only a bit, but you likely have been reading since you were five. After all that's who we need to please the reader, not other writers. I learned the most when I challenged myself to read and comment on every entry. I can't do it all the time, but it makes a difference when I can. I always start with a positive then a constructive (if I see it and feel God leading me to leave it) Then end on a positive. I'll go through the criteria the judges use: beginning, ending, crafting, on topic, clear message or point, transitions and I'm forgetting one.

Actually, you're forgetting two. The other two are flow ,and publishability for its targeted audience.

Shann wrote:I knew the publishable one, but don't use it for myself and thought flow was part of transitions.

It's nice to see you pop in though. It's been a while

I need to go to bed but have so much to do

Actually... you're right. I just didn't catch "transitions." To me, though, flow is slightly different from transitions. You can have great transitions and yet have poor "flow" within each section, if that makes sense. And it is technically "flow." So it's pretty much the same, but... not quite? lol